What a gathering of the industry’s most knowledgeable and energetic people in one spot. The 30th annual AACFB conference was well-attended with over 40 exhibiting vendors and an estimated 300 in attendance. Vendors consisted of brokers, funders, and third-party services. The mix of individuals and businesses made for great conversations and a “firehose” of information. The contacts made will be very beneficial to CHB, as the knowledge learned from those contacts will help to grow the business here. We are always seeking ways to improve our processes and procedures and this was a great opportunity to see and hear what the industry is doing. The contacts that we connected with made it very clear that we can reach out to them at any time with any question. Even the direct competitors in our field were very generous with their time and energy. AACFB — thank you for the opportunity. We are looking forward to 2022. AACFB Conference Sept. 8–10 • Nashville, TN
Upcoming Events
NEFA Financing Symposium Oct. 12–15 Charlotte, NC
Keynote Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, with MasterCard who is sure to motivate and inspire you. Throughout the day, discover new ideas during our Exhibitor Networking, Educational Sessions, and Practical Innovation Lab.
CHB Open House Oct. 21, 4:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m. Wheatland, WY
Come see what we do here at CHB! Meet our team and learn more about our operations during our open house events. Our doors will be open to the public.
Could C-Commerce Change the Way You Shop?
Remember in the early days of Microsoft Word, when “Clippy” the paperclip would offer helpful advice and tips on how to use the platform? Today, we could consider Clippy one of the first chatbots to change the way customer service functions in the digital age, and now, Clippy’s descendants could be changing the way we shop. Popular brands like IKEA, Sephora, Lego, and Amazon have created “conversational commerce” (c-commerce) bots designed to help shoppers personalize their shopping experience. In the case of Lego, a chatbot named Ralph lives in Lego’s Facebook Messenger. He’s helped confused and overwhelmed United Kingdom customers shop for the perfect Lego kit for Christmas. Ralph was launched in 2017 and other brands are taking notice. The concept is fairly simple. Users reach out to the chatbot via the retailer’s preferred platform, like Messenger or WhatsApp. (Coincidentally, both are owned by Facebook.) The bot provides on-screen prompts, which the consumer answers, allowing the bot’s artificial intelligence software to catalog the best products for this particular consumer, cutting the amount of time spent scrolling through endless options. The bot then presents links to these products in the chat, streamlining a user’s shopping experience.
is up from $2.8 billion in 2019. They also predict it could be a time- and money-saver for health care, retail, and banking industries, potentially saving $11 billion annually. Still, many questions remain about how a c-commerce bot should work. In a 2016 Medium article, Chris Medina wrote that some of the biggest mysteries about c-commerce involve the apps themselves. Right now, many industries are still toying with the idea. While the bots may not be taking over the world (yet), c-commerce bots like Ralph could revolutionize the way we shop, helping consumers narrow down their options to viable products and personalizing the shopping experience the way Clippy and personal shoppers did in the past.
C-commerce may still be in its infancy stages, but Business Insider predicts the booming market could reach $142 billion by 2024. That projection
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